🎬 Instagram Reels Scraper

Reach lives in plays, and plays are the number most scrapers skip.

Scrape Instagram reels from any public creator. Just add Instagram usernames to get play counts, view counts, likes, comments, captions, hashtags, mentions, music attribution, duration and direct video URLs.

✨ What makes this Instagram scraper different

	Most Instagram scrapers	This one
Filtering	Returns everything, you filter afterwards	Filters before counting, so you pay for matches
Sorting	Whatever order the platform gave	Enforced with a stable tiebreaker, identical every run
Missing data	A silent 0 you cannot distinguish from a real zero	Named in meta.fields_unavailable
Bad input	Burns a run, then fails	Rejected before the request is made

🎯 What can I do with Instagram Reels Scraper?

Find out what actually performs

Sort a creator's reels by plays and the pattern is usually obvious within ten rows.

{
  "targets": ["creator_username"],
  "limit": 50,
  "sortBy": "play_count",
  "sortOrder": "desc"
}

Track a competitor's cadence

Pull their reels weekly with a date filter and you have posting frequency and engagement trend without opening the app.

{
  "targets": ["competitor"],
  "filters": { "posted_after": "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z" }
}

Spot trending audio early

Every reel carries its music attribution, so the same track appearing across accounts is visible in the data.

{
  "targets": ["creator_one", "creator_two"],
  "filters": { "min_play_count": 100000 }
}

🧾 What can Instagram Reels Scraper do?

• Scrape all Instagram reels from any public creator
• Get play counts, view counts, likes and comments per reel
• Extract captions with hashtags and mentions already parsed out
• Get music and audio attribution for trend research
• Get Instagram reel video URLs and thumbnails
• Filter Instagram reels by plays, likes or date and sort by performance

📋 What data can I scrape from Instagram reels?

Field	Description
id	Instagram media ID
shortcode	Reel shortcode
url	Reel permalink
kind	reel
caption	Reel caption
play_count	Plays
view_count	Views
like_count	Likes
comment_count	Comments
duration_secs	Length in seconds
taken_at	Publish time, UTC
owner_username	Creator username
owner_id	Creator Instagram ID
hashtags	Hashtags parsed from the caption
mentions	Mentions parsed from the caption
music	Song name, artist, audio ID
video_url	Direct video URL
thumbnail_url	Cover image
is_paid_partnership	Sponsored content flag

▶️ How to scrape Instagram reels

1. Add your Instagram creator usernames to targets
2. Set limit, and optionally Sort by and filters
3. Click Start
4. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML, or pull it from the API

⬇️ Input

Field	Required	Description
targets	yes	Instagram creator usernames.
limit	no	Max items per target, applied after filtering. Default 15, max 5000.
sortBy	no	Pick a field to order by. Leave empty for the default order.
sortOrder	no	Highest first or lowest first. Defaults to highest first.
filters	no	Applied before sorting and before the limit.

{
  "targets": [
    "natgeo"
  ],
  "limit": 30,
  "sortBy": "play_count",
  "sortOrder": "desc",
  "filters": {
    "min_play_count": 100000
  }
}

🎛️ How to filter and sort Instagram reels

Filter	Effect
min_play_count	Only reels above a performance floor
min_like_count / min_comment_count	Engagement floors
posted_after / posted_before	Date window
caption_contains	Substring match on the caption
hashtags_any	Keep reels using any of these hashtags
paid_partnership_only	Only sponsored content

Filters run before the row count, so a narrow filter costs less than a broad one. Sorting is applied with a stable tiebreaker, so two identical runs return identical order, and the sort you pick is applied server-side, not left to the platform.

⬆️ Output

One row per item, exportable as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML, or straight from the API.

🎬 Extracted Instagram reels data sample

{
  "id": "3963946321739534979",
  "shortcode": "DcCxC2AAFKD",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DcCxC2AAFKD/",
  "kind": "reel",
  "caption": "Hammerhead sharks up close...",
  "play_count": 580358,
  "like_count": 3312,
  "comment_count": 41,
  "duration_secs": 27.5,
  "taken_at": "2026-08-15T09:12:44Z",
  "owner_username": "natgeo",
  "hashtags": [
    "hammerheadsharksupclose"
  ],
  "music": {
    "song_name": "Original audio",
    "artist_name": "natgeo"
  },
  "video_url": "https://..."
}

🛡️ Why results stay reliable when Instagram changes

Instagram changes what it returns. When a field stops being available it does not vanish from the schema: it comes back empty and meta.fields_unavailable names it. You branch on that instead of guessing why a number is zero.

❓ FAQ

How do I find a creator's best performing Instagram reels?

Set Sort by to Plays and raise limit. Sorting runs server-side, so the top reels come back first.

Can I get Instagram reel video URLs?

Yes. video_url is a direct link to the source video for each reel, and thumbnail_url gives you the cover image.

Can I scrape Instagram reels by hashtag?

Use filters.hashtags_any to keep only reels using specific hashtags, or try the Instagram Search Scraper to find reels by keyword instead of by creator.

Can I get the music used in an Instagram reel?

Yes. music carries song name, artist name and audio ID, which is how trending audio becomes visible in the data.

How many Instagram reels can I scrape per creator?

Up to 5000 per run via limit, applied after filtering.

What is the difference between plays and views?

Both are returned separately as play_count and view_count, because Instagram counts them differently and collapsing them loses information.

🔗 Scrape more from Instagram

• 💬 Instagram Comments Scraper
• 👤 Instagram Profile Scraper
• 📸 Instagram Posts Scraper
• 🔍 Instagram Search Scraper